Popular passages

Page 71 - The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction: not indeed For that which is most worthy to be blest — Delight and liberty, the simple creed Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest, With new-fledged hope still fluttering...

Page xvii - The study of language," he said, " seems to me as if it was given for the very purpose of forming the human mind in youth ; and the Greek and Latin languages, in themselves so perfect, and at the same time freed from the insuperable difficulty which must attend any attempt to teach boys philology through the medium of their own spoken language, • seem the very instruments, by which this is to be effected.

Page 71 - Hence in a season of calm weather Though inland far we be, Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the Children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.

Page 65 - Carried the war into the enemy's country! Yes, sir, and what sort of a war has he made of it? Why, sir, he has stretched a drag-net over the whole surface of perished pamphlets, indiscreet sermons, frothy paragraphs, and fuming popular addresses, over whatever the pulpit, in its moments of alarm, the press in its heats, and parties in their extravagance have severally thrown off in times of general excitement and violence. He has thus swept together a mass of such things as, but that they are now...

Page xvii - ... because education is a dynamical, not a mechanical process, and the more powerful and vigorous the mind of the teacher, the more clearly and readily he can grasp things, the better fitted he is to cultivate the mind of another. And to this I find myself coming more and more ; I care less and less for information, more and more for the pure exercise of the mind ; for answering a question concisely and comprehensively, for showing a command of language, a delicacy of taste, and a comprehensiveness...

Page xvii - ... active support and personal friendliness, he from the first maintained that in the actual working of the school he must be completely independent, and that their remedy, if they were dissatisfied, was not interference, but dismissal. On this condition he took the post, and any attempt to control either his administration of the school, or his own private occupations, he felt bound to resist " as a duty," he said on one occasion, "not only to himself, but to the master of every foundation school...

Page xxxv - Dear marshes ! vain to him the gift of sight Who cannot in their various incomes share, From every season drawn, of shade and light, Who sees in them but levels brown and bare ; Each change of storm or sunshine scatters free On them its largess of variety, For Nature with cheap means still works her wonders rare.

Page 7 - This unexampled liberality to Winthrop, in his distress, is a more satisfactory proof of the high estimation, in which he stood, than could be afforded by the most elaborate eloquence of eulogy. But the generosity of Dummer is above all praise. His contribution is fifty per cent, above the whole tax of his town, and equal to half the benevolence of the whole metropolis ; yet he had been a sufferer under the mistaken views of Winthrop, and the other triumphant sound religionists, as set forth in our...

Page 30 - Let it not be imagined," says Mr. Cleaveland, " that Mr. Moody was a mere classical drill-sergeant, or that his sole power as an educator lay in his knowledge and skill as a teacher of language. Imbued himself with the noblest views of life and duty, punctual, upright, conscientious and benevolent, — and more than all a Christian, humble and sincere, — his best endeavors, aims, and influence were of the moral kind. And if...